Then and now: Changes to the Park Avenue area

This is the Park Avenue area of South Lake Tahoe in the early 1950s. Photo/Lake Tahoe Historical Society

Defining the markers in the photo:

A = Steve Myers’s original Tahoe Drive-In Theatre which moved to Bijou in the mid-1950s. Its curvy driveway leading from Cecil’s (C) ultimately became an extension of Park Avenue entering the Crescent V Center. Today that leg is renamed Heavenly Village Way.

B = Jack VanSickle’s Crescent V Ranch and Stateline Riding Stables, part of which became Crescent V Shopping Center in 1963.

C = The landmark Cecil’s Market was razed in 2001 for redevelopment.

D = (Judge) Rudy and Jeannie Buchanan’s quonset-hut Lakeside Theatre was razed in 1962 and rebuilt in 1963 near the Y. Rebuilt again by Office Depot in 1990s, it now is the CVS store.

E = Junction of Highway 50 and Pioneer Trail. There were no traffic signals in this photo, and Highway 50 was two lanes, plus parking.

F = “Brownie” Piedmont’s Flying A service station, South Shore’s oldest surviving gas station, is now Tahoe Tom’s.

An aerial view of the same locations in 2015. Photo/Google Earth

— Bill Kingman